Seperating the Worthy from the Un-Worthy

Settle in, this is a long one, and this is my last "pre-Lent" news post. I realize the political conversation is changing, and I am glad my self imposed news exile is going into effect soon (Wednesday). More on that then, but for now...

The recent developments in our national conversation regarding the housing crisis and rescue plan have really troubled me. It seems as though there are pundits who wish to turn neighbor against neighbor and would prefer to see families thrown out on the streets instead of compromising a "self-righteous" capitalistic ideology. They seem to believe that employing grace, humility, and solidarity with our fellow citizens would create a "moral hazard" for the citizens of our country. RIDICULOUS! First of all, are we not our brothers keeper? As Christians AND patriots I would say YES! Surely as a "Christian nation" we would want to model ourselves after the law given to God's chosen people in the Bible.

Leviticus 25:35-37
35 “If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and cannot support himself, support him as you would a foreigner or a temporary resident and allow him to live with you. 36 Do not charge interest or make a profit at his expense. Instead, show your fear of God by letting him live with you as your relative. 37 Remember, do not charge interest on money you lend him or make a profit on food you sell him. 38 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God."

By now I am sure you have seen the rant last week by Rick Santelli (if you haven't here's the link). The basic question he asks is, why are we (the government) giving money (tax dollars) to people who did not make a good decision with their home purchase or mortgage financing in the first place?

The practical answer is because the problem is so deep and widespread that to do nothing and allow potentially ten million homes (families) to go into foreclosure would wreak societal and financial havoc on an exponentially greater scale than we have seen so far.

It's telling that Rick didn't say a word when one single insurance company, AIG, received $150 billion tax dollars so that they would not default on their obligations. People, that's ONE company being shored up by tax dollars. If people are going to be "outraged" that's where it should be directed, not at our neighbors or the family in the foreclosed house in another city! AIG was designated as a company "too big to fail." I thank God that Obama (and many other politicians) deem 9,000,000 problematic family homes too big to fail as well!

There seems to be a false assumption that people are going to be getting checks in the mail so their houses can be paid off without some sort of accountability. A simple cursory reading of the proposal and a person will find that this is not the case. I think Rick's words are a disgrace because of the false notion that people are just defaulting on their homes so the government will rescue them. That notion completely discounts the psychological devastation people go through when they loose their home.

Reality check. Families are losing their homes because people are loosing their jobs (over 4 million jobs lost in the last six months) and can't make their payments. Before we judge our neighbor we must ask ourselves how long we could make our mortgage payments or rent if we lost our jobs tomorrow? People are being foreclosed on by banks because they can't meet monthly payments they never dreamed they would have trouble making. These are families who had jobs, retirement, savings, and home equity all of which has been completely wiped out. True, people have purchased more house than they could reasonably expect to afford if the economy went bad. But complicit in that are Banks who TOLD family after family that the mortgage loans they were getting were the perfect size for their income, and the guaranteed increase in their homes value.

It is in our interest to help each other in this time of crisis. On a spiritual, personal, and governmental level. Unless we do that, unless we have a solidarity of suffering with each other, we will not emerge stronger as a nation, people, and especially as Christians.

In case you are still having a hard time being convinced that we should come to the aid of our fellow citizens who have been caught up in a once in a hundred years financial crisis then perhaps you need to be reminded just how we got into this housing mess in the first place. I'll let 60 minutes lay it all out for you with the story of just a single bank headquartered in California.



BONUS:

A visual explanation on how the whole financial crisis happened to begin with. Done very well and after the 11:00 you'll be smarter than you are now about what's going on.


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.